


A million dreams are keeping me awake

by Elisexyz



Series: Mental Health Whump Timeless Challenge [2]
Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Pre-Season/Series 01, Teenagers, light injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-21 17:15:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18706795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisexyz/pseuds/Elisexyz
Summary: This happens often enough that Jessica has started keeping a kit in her bedroom. It makes her angry almost as much as it makes her sad.





	A million dreams are keeping me awake

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the prompt "Touch" in the [Mental Health Whump Challenge by newisalwaysbetter](https://heytheredeann.tumblr.com/post/184648324764/mental-health-whump). ~~It was supposed to be up yesterday but sssh.~~ I've wanted to write some teen!Wyjess for a while, so. here it is!  
>  Title from [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rxgAh1bnHU).

“Jeez— _Wyatt_!” Jessica exhales, when she hears tapping against the window to her bedroom and she turns, only to find her boyfriend grinning at her, in a very precarious position.

She shakes her head slightly, setting aside her book and quickly kicking the covers away so that she can jump off the bed and let the idiot in.

She has a bunch of reprimands on the tip of her tongue, a list of worries about this habit of his, which carries a pretty damn big risk of falling down and breaking his neck, but it all dies in her throat the moment she can take a better look at his face at the light of her lamp.

“Again?” she asks, gentle and apologetic, although it’s no fault of hers, her fingertips touching bloodstained hair for what she _wishes_ were the first time – she’s somehow always hoping that _this_ time it will be just a rebellious visit for the hell of it; fat chance.

“It’s not so bad,” he immediately assures, with a broad grin that’s way too bright to be believable.

Jessica groans in frustration. “You _always_ say that,” she protests, quickly gesturing for him to move forward so that she can close the window. Wyatt makes his way over to her bed, sitting on the edge of it as she turns on the lights to get a better visual and she dives for the kit that she’s started keeping in her room precisely because of _this_.

He doesn’t want to get her parents involved, because then it’d mean getting the _authorities_ involved, a whole mess that he’s too close to eighteen to put himself through, he says, so he just keeps climbing her window looking for shelter. She’s always _so_ tempted to snitch, but she never does, partially because she worries about what his father may do if he got wind that things are not looking so good for him.

When she makes her way over to him, what she sees is a messy and bloody gash on his forehead, which makes her suck in a breath as her face twists into a grimace.

“He just pushed me around a little,” Wyatt assures, and she knows he’s had worse – hell, she’s _seen_ worse – but that doesn’t make the blood any less upsetting, or her stomach boil any less in rage. “I got out quickly.”

She swallows a bunch of insults, trying to appear calm instead, because yelling probably wouldn’t be a kind thing to do under the circumstances.

“Is this all of it?” she asks, pulling back a little to better look at him in the eye.

“Yes,” he replies, firmly, and she isn’t so sure she believes him, but she starts cleaning the cut nonetheless, in tense silence.

“I’m sorry,” Wyatt ends up saying, when she’s almost done.

Jessica rolls her eyes. “I thought we had agreed that you’d stop apologizing for this after— what was it, the fifth time it happened?”

Honestly, she doesn’t mind him coming to her for shelter, she really doesn’t, she just wishes he didn’t _have_ to, that’s all.

“Right,” he says, absently, and still looking very guilty.

“It’s not your fault anyway,” she adds, bitterly. “He’s an old bastard.” She’s never met the man, and at first she had an hard time speaking ill of someone’s parent, but she drew the line at the first black eye that she realized wasn’t a ‘door in the face’ or a fight with a friend that got a little out of hand.

Wyatt looks at her with a small grin bubbling at his lips, and she manages to smile back, if only a little.

“All done,” she announces, when she’s fairly sure that the cut is clean and he won’t bleed all over her carpet. “Is this all for real?” she asks then, just to check.

“Yep, I’m good,” Wyatt assures. Her expression must be a little sceptical – he said ‘push around’, that’s vague and could mean a lot of things –, because he adds: “No, really! Look, I’m good, I’ll show you how good I am—”

Next thing she knows, he is standing up and he has pulled her into a crappy mock-dance, humming the tune to some annoying song that they are always blasting on commercials and grinning at her with complicity.

“Okay, okay, I got it, Wyatt—” she tries to protest, trying not to burst out laughing as he nudges her into a pirouette. “Sssh, Wyatt, they’ll hear us—” she warns him, burying her grin into his shoulder as she shakes her head slightly.

“Fine, fine,” he whispers, a note of amusement still in his voice, as he stops moving but tightens his hold around her. One way or another, there are always hugs involved in this kind of nights.

He never asks directly, but Jessica knows he needs them, so she doesn’t waste any time properly wrapping her arms around him too, her hand going up to the back of his head so that she can move her fingers through his hair.

“I’m sorry it’s like this,” she says, quietly, after a few moments of silence.

“It won’t always be,” he immediately replies, confidently.

She can only smile as she nods against his shoulder, ever proud of that spirit that somehow none of that crap has managed to break.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including: 
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> If you don’t want a reply, for any reason, feel free to sign your comment with “whisper” and I will appreciate it but not respond!


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